LESSON 59 JACK AND THE BEANSTALK

JACK AND THE BEANSTALK

Ⅰ

cot-tage owned straight

du-ring peeped vil-lage

in-stead ri-ding leath-er

1. Once upon a time, in a village in the west of England, there lived a poor widow and her only son, Jack.

JACK STARTED EARLY IN THE MORNING.

2. She rented a small cottage, and worked hard to keep herself and child.

3. One cold winter she fell sick, and when the time came for her to pay the rent of her cottage, the widow had no money left.

4. Her landlord 〔1〕 told her that she must either pay the rent by the end of the week or leave the cottage.

5. As she still owned a cow, she made up her mind to sell that, and so get money for rent and food.

6. The next market day, she told Jack to drive the cow to the town, and sell it.

7. Jack started away early in the morning, with right good will; and, as he went along, driving the cow, he sang cheerily at the top of his voice.

8. "Where are you going with that cow, my merry little fellow?" said a man on horseback, who was riding by.

I am going to the market to sell her, said Jack.

9. "Well, my boy," said the man, "you need not go so far, for I will buy her. See! I will give you all there is in this bag for her."

10. Jack looked at the round leather bag and thought it was full of gold, so he gave up the cow and got the purse in return.

11. When he peeped into the purse he found that there was no money in it, but only a number of round flat beans.

12. He asked the man to give him back the cow, but the man laughed at him and said, "No, lad! a bargain 〔2〕 is a bargain. Go home; you will not be a loser."

HE STARTED TO CLIMB.

13. When Jack's mother heard that he had sold the cow for a bag of beans she was very angry. She took the beans from the bag, threw them into the garden, and sent Jack at once to bed.

14. Poor Jack cried himself to sleep, but the next morning he was up at the first gleam of daylight. He meant to go and look for work, for he wanted to earn money, and so help his mother to pay the rent.

15. On going into the garden, he was amazed 〔3〕 to find that the beans had grown so high in a single night that their tops were lost to sight in the clouds.

16. As the stems were thick, and twined together like a huge ladder, Jack thought that he would climb them. He started to climb, and went up and up and up.

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WORK is the grand cure for all the miseries that ever beset mankind—honest work, which you intend getting done.

—CARLYLE

注释

〔1〕 landlord: The man who owned the cottage.

〔2〕 bargain: An agreement.

〔3〕 amazed: Very much surprised; astonished.